Watson wins two-hole playoff over Simpson
AVONDALE, La. – Bubba Watson’s mom told him he had to play New Orleans. Bubba considered her advise, but said he made the final decision. It was a good suggestion and a wonderful decision as Watson won on the second playoff hole against Webb Simpson to earn the title at the Zurich Classic New Orleans. It was Watson’s second win of the year to join Mark Wilson as the only multiple winners on tour this season.Both players finished regulation at 15 under 273, two clear of Jason Dufner, Tom Gainey and K.J. Choi.
“Yeah, I want to ask mom where else I should play at because I liked it,” Watson said with a huge grin following the victory, his third in 10 months.
“First of all, it was awesome to have my mom here. It's awesome to be here at the Zurich Classic. But for my mom to be there and watch her son win, hopefully, she's happy just like I am.
“The first two nobody was there. My wife was there, but no mom or my dad wasn't there. My dad was obviously sick, so he wasn't going to be there. Then he passed on my last win. So for my mom to be there, hopefully, it means a lot to her that she got to sweat and cry and do everything that I did and all my emotions that went through the 18 holes and the two extra holes there.
“Yeah, it was fun. It was a good day. I was glad it worked out this way for mom and everything.”
The 15th hole was pivotal for Simpson. He was accessed a one-stroke penalty when he addressed his ball on the putting green and it moved. The resulting bogey dropped him into a tie with for the lead with Watson.
“Yeah, it's not the first time it's cost me,” Simpson said when discussing the penalty stroke at 15. “My ball was five inches from the hole. And the problem with the rule is you get greens like this that they get pretty bare, almost like this table top, wind's blowing, balls can wiggle and move so easily.
“My ball's five inches from the hole,” he continued. “I go up to tap it in. It's not like I rushed up there, I took my time. Put the putter down and took it back, and the ball moved about a quarter or half an inch.”
He went on to point out that golf is supposed to be the last gentleman's game. The onus is on the player to call a penalty on themselves when infractions occur. However, when wind or other natural things affect the golf ball, should a player be penalized?
In this instance, Simpson did nothing to incur the penalty other than fall victim to a wind from Mother Nature and his ball was affected because it was on glass-like greens. Seems like an awfully big price to pay – a win, two-year exemption, trip to Maui, a difference of $425,000 in his paycheck and much more.
Simpson wasn’t bitter though as he said, “But Bubba deserves a win, and I'm pretty happy for him.”
For his part, Watson felt for Simpson, but didn’t think it cost him the win.
“If it had been the last hole, it probably would have been more heartbreaking,” Watson said. “But since it was 15, we both had to go on. Now we're tied so just go on.
“But I knew after I realized that I got to keep playing. There are other guys trying to beat us. They don't know what's going on, so they don't care. So I realized if I made that 25-footer now I'm one up instead of being tied.
“Yeah, at first it was just heartbreaking to see your friend,” Watson added. “And to win a golf tournament that way, it's heartbreaking. But it happened so far back that the golf tournament wasn't won there, it was won in the playoff, I guess.”
Matt Jones and George McNeill shared sixth and Billy Mayfair, Andres Romero, David Mathis, Greg Chalmers and Luke Donald tied for eighth to round out the top-10.
Donald continued to be a story, even though he was never in the thick of the battle this week. Donald continued his amazingly consistent play on Sunday with a 3 under 69 to move from a tie for 16th at the start of the day to a T8 finish.
In seven events in 2011, Donald has recorded six top-10 finishes. Included in those results was a win at the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship in his second start of the year and a playoff runner-up result last week at The Heritage.
If you want to be really picky, a 79 in the second round of his first start in Los Angeles, after an opening 68, led to his only missed cut and stands as the lone negative on a run that has him nearing the top of the world rankings.
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